Shortly after the adoption of the Charter of Rights, the Supreme Court
began invoking principles of criminal law theory when striking down
criminal laws. More recently, it has employed principles of
instrumental rationality in doing so. In both cases, the court relies
on the concept of “fundamental justice” under section 7 of the
Charter as opposed to invoking specifically enumerated rights when
striking down criminal laws. Constitutionalizing Criminal Law calls
for an overhaul of the way the Supreme Court of Canada has developed
the relationship between criminal and constitutional law. The
existence of multiple avenues to constitutionally challenge criminal
laws raises several questions: To what extent do the methods of review
overlap, giving rise to judicial choice? What are the benefits and
detriments of each approach? Do different purposes underlie each set
of enumerated rights? Is it useful to preserve more than one rationale
for striking down criminal laws? And what lessons can other
jurisdictions draw from the Canadian experience? This book argues that
to increase the fairness and legitimacy of judicial review, the court
needs to reverse course. Rights decisions should be based on
enumerated rights where possible, the principles of instrumental
rationality abandoned, and the principles of criminal law theory
invoked only when an unjust criminal law cannot otherwise be
challenged under the Charter.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780774867696
Publisert
2021
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
University of British Columbia Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter